New league tables reveal top high schools and colleges in Warrington

However, a new study says the new league tables 'punish' schools with a higher proportion of disadvantaged students.

The schools are ranked by the government’s new provisional progress 8 scores, which measure the progress pupils made between their year 6 SATs and their GCSEs in year 11 but critics argued that the measure is too simplistic.

King's Leadership Academy in Woolston topped the table for GCSE results while Lymm High School was ranked highest for its A-level performances - the average grade being B-.

Priestley College, which has four times the number of pupils than Lymm High School was close behind with 635 pupils sitting an A-level exam last summer.

High school league table:

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Sixth form and college league table:

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Meanwhile according to new data from the University of Bristol, league tables fail to take pupil background into account.

It reveals that once factors such as pupil ethnicity, deprivation and special educational needs are recorded, a fifth of schools saw their national league table position change by over 500 places.

The research further indicates that 40 per cent of schools currently judged to be underperforming would no longer fall into this category.

The analysis of the 2016 data from all 3,098 state-maintained secondary schools, asserts that other schools 'are rewarded merely for teaching educationally advantaged intakes'.

Dr Leckie said: "It seems clear from our results that the higher the proportion of disadvantaged pupils in a school, the more it will effectively be punished for the national underperformance of these pupil groups.

"On the flip side, other schools are rewarded merely for teaching educationally advantaged intakes."

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "League tables have lost their credibility.

"We've proposed comparing schools that are alike, where the size of the school and the pupil demographics are similar, for instance, rather than a league table, where schools have very little in common but are set up against each other in a list.

"Ultimately, we have to move away from data.

"Everyone understands that test and exam scores are only part of the picture when judging a pupil's performance or a school's effectiveness, so we should stop using them on their own."